The Olympic gold medalist in slopestyle snowboarding has had a whirlwind week since winning the first gold medal of the Sochi 2014 games. A couple of weeks ago, Kotsenburg was another anonymous name in a sport that only had one star: Shaun White. Now, after winning gold, Kotsenburg is experiencing the flash fame that seems to happen to a few athletes every Olympics. Media appearances, video shoots, phone calls, texts…it’s a lot for a 20-year-old Park City snowboarder who is used to sleeping in most days before hitting the park.

From the time he stood on the podium for the first time, it’s been surreal.

After winning gold he did several days of media appearances in Sochi before hopping a flight to New York, where he’s appeared on Good Morning America. Because of his sudden media obligations and a win that came so early in the Olympics, he said he missed the oft-gossiped-about parties in the Olympic Village.

“My event was the first event, and no one really parties before their events. So then I won and had to get out of there before any good stuff happened,” he said.

Now he’s sitting in a glass-walled office on the 10th floor of a Madison Avenue office building, surrounded by boxes upon boxes of Mike and Ike’s candies (“We know how much Sage loves candy,” said a member of his agency), and he looks beat.

“I’ve slept maybe four, four and a half hours the last few nights,” he said, blinking heavily. “I just can’t wait to get home and chill, you know?”

So where is the gold medal? I asked.

“Oh, yeah,” he said. “It’s right here. Want to see it?”

He reached down to his USA-emblazoned down jacket, which was lying haphazardly on the floor, and opened up the zipper pocket.

You’re just keeping the gold medal jammed in your jacket pocket?

“Yeah, man,” he said. “Otherwise I’d lose it. I lose everything.”

What about at night?

“I don’t know,” he said, laughing. “I can’t even remember. I left it on the table last night. The other night I just left it on the floor.”

Kotsenburg, who is now fighting the kind of cold that comes mostly from exhaustion, bites down on his gold medal for a photo and laughed. He explained it’s probably part of the reason he’s feeling unwell.

“This thing is so disgusting,” he said of the medal. “So many people have put their mitts on it.”

When talking, at times he seemed like a seasoned pro, like when he discussed problems with the current tour and how he hopes to use the newfound attention to bring some awareness about the problems in competitive snowboarding. And then he spoke about people who have contacted him on Twitter and you remember he’s 20 years old.

“Kobe Bryant tweeted at me. Metallica tweeted at me. Eli Roth. He messaged me. It was like, ‘Dude, that was sick.’ I am so down for all three of them. It’s so weird. They’re hitting me up.”

“I’m just so surprised how nice everyone is,” he said. “Like I was walking in New York and there was a dude with a TMZ camera, and he just came up and was like, ‘Yo Sage Kotsenburg, you won the Olympics, you’re so cool.’ And I was like, ‘Thanks, man!'”

Sage Kotsenburg is carrying his gold medal around in his jacket pocket

NEW YORK — Sage Kotsenburg is tired. The Olympic gold medalist in slopestyle snowboarding has had a whirlwind week since winning the (…)

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